Sean Strickland is one of, if not the most colorful personalities in the world of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). While his comments are often controversial and push the boundaries, Strickland is also capable of making some hilarious observations and comments. One such occasion came recently when he spoke about fighting the former UFC middleweight champion, Alex Pereira.
Strickland took to his social media platform recently to address what it was like being inside the Octagon with Alex Pereira. In Pereira’s relatively young 9 fight career, he has registered 6 KOs already. It includes dusting the current champ Israel Adesanya to win the UFC belt at UFC 281. Poatan also had the iconic KO of Adesanya during their kickboxing days in 2016.
While Alex Pereira brutally got KO’ed at UFC 287 by Adesanya, he was certainly competitive up until the finish. It just proves that fighters can not afford to take even a second for granted while they share the Octagon with the Brazilian. It looks like Strickland also has the same opinion as he hilariously revealed why he lost to Pereira during their clash at UFC 276.
Strickland added, “Here’s the thing you guys about Alex. I can spar Alex and I can go point for point. And you know, I can hit, I can kick him. But the difference is, the man touches you, and you just f**king die!” (h/t via BT Sport)
As previously mentioned, Strickland lost to Alex Pereira at UFC 276. Ahead of the bout, Strickland did not take Pereira’s power seriously and started to walk Pereira down with his hands down. Hence, it allowed the 35-year-old to land perhaps the easiest KO blow of his life and got the win at the 2:36 minute mark of the very first round.
Pereira vs Strickland training footage.
— AFeldmanMMA (@afeldMMA) June 13, 2023
Pretty cool to see these two working with each other less than a year after their fight at UFC 276.
(AlexPoatanPereira YT) pic.twitter.com/80b4LRkgLl
But recently, they formed a friendship and even trained together. Hence, it seems like Strickland’s comments are stemming from their recent sparring sessions together.
What is next for Sean Strickland and Alex Pereira respectively?
Alex Pereira is finally moving up in weight after his vicious KO loss to Israel Adesanya at UFC 287. It is well-documented how muscular and well-built Pereira is. He towered over Dominick Reyes who pushed the current UFC heavyweight champ Jon Jones to the brink at UFC 247 in 2020. Hence, it was not surprising to know that Pereira had a lot of difficulties cutting down to 185lbs for the championship fights.
Blachowicz 🆚 Pereira in a light heavyweight bout at UFC 291 😤 pic.twitter.com/D40et1Y9OR
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) May 16, 2023
While there were talks from Pereira’s corner that he wanted to fight Adesanya for a third time inside the Octagon, he ultimately decided to leave middleweight altogether. He is now taking on the former light heavyweight title holder, Jan Blachowicz. With Pereira eyeing a light heavyweight title shot, the fight against Blachowicz at UFC 291 is a step in his road.
Strickland, on the other hand, is coming off a win against Nassourdine Imavov in January 2023. His next fight is set to take place at a UFC Fight Night event on July 1, 2023. He occupies the no. 7 ranking in the middleweight division.